Textination Newsline

Challa Kumar has developed methods to create novel plastic-like materials using proteins and fabric.

Every year, 400 million tons of plastic waste are generated worldwide. Between 19 and 23 million tons of that plastic waste makes its way into aquatic ecosystems, and the remaining goes into the ground. An additional 92 million tons of cloth waste is generated annually.

Challa Kumar, professor emeritus of chemistry, “fed up” with the tremendous amount of toxic waste people continually pump into the environment, felt compelled to do something. As a chemist, doing something meant using his expertise to develop new, sustainable materials.

“Everyone should think about replacing fossil fuel-based materials with natural materials anywhere they can to help our civilization to survive,” Kumar says. “The house is on fire, we can’t wait. If the house is on fire and you start digging a well – that is not going to work. It’s time to start pouring water on the house.”

Kumar has developed two technologies that use proteins and cloth, respectively, to create new materials. UConn’s Technology Commercialization Services (TCS) has filed provisional patents for both technologies.

Inspired by nature’s ability to construct a diverse array of functional materials, Kumar and his team developed a method to produce continuously tunable non-toxic materials.

“Chemistry is the only thing standing in our way,” Kumar says. “If we understand protein chemistry, we can make protein materials as strong as a diamond or as soft as a feather.”

The first innovation is a process to transform naturally occurring proteins into plastic-like materials. Kumar’s student, Ankarao Kalluri ’23 Ph.D., worked on this project.

Proteins have “reactor groups” on their surfaces which can react with substances with which they come into contact. Using his knowledge of how these groups work, Kumar and his team used a chemical link to bind protein molecules together.

This process creates a dimer – a molecule composed to two proteins. From there, the dimer is joined with another dimer to create tetramer, and so on until it becomes a large 3D molecule. This 3D aspect of the technology is unique, since most synthetic polymers are linear chains.

This novel 3D structure allows the new polymer to behave like a plastic. Just like the proteins of which it is made, the material can stretch, change shape, and fold. Thus, the material can be tailored via chemistry for a variety of specific applications.

Unlike synthetic polymers, because Kumar’s material is made of proteins and a bio-linking chemical, it can biodegrade, just like plant and animal proteins do naturally.

“Nature degrades proteins by ripping apart the amide bonds that are in them,” Kumar says. “It has enzymes to handle that sort of chemistry. We have the same amide linkages in our materials. So, the same enzymes that work in biology should also work on this material and biodegrade it naturally.”

In the lab, the team found that the material degrades within a few days in acidic solution. Now, they are investigating what happens if they bury this material in the ground, which is the fate of many post-consumer plastics.

They have demonstrated that the protein-based material can form a variety of plastic-like products, including coffee cup lids and thin transparent films. It could also be used to make fire-resistant roof tiles, or higher-end materials like, car doors, rocket cone tips, or heart valves.

The next steps for this technology are to continue testing their mechanical properties, like strength or flexibility, as well as toxicity.

“I think we need to have social consciousness that we cannot put out materials into the environment that are toxic,” Kumar says. “We just cannot. We have to stop doing that. And we cannot use materials derived from fossil fuels either.”

Kumar’s second technology uses a similar principle, but instead of just proteins, uses proteins reinforced with natural fibers, specifically cotton.

“We are creating a lot of textile waste each year due to the fast-changing fashion industry” Kumar says. “So why not use that waste to create useful materials – convert waste to wealth.”

Just like the plastic-like protein materials (called “Proteios,” derived from original Greek words), Kumar expects composite materials made from proteins and natural fibers will biodegrade without producing toxic waste.

In the lab, Kumar’s former student, doctoral candidate Adekeye Damilola, created many objects with protein-fabric composites, which include small shoes, desks, flowers, and chairs. This material contains textile fibers which serve as the linking agent with the proteins, rather than the cross-linking chemical Kumar uses for the protein-based plastics.

The crosslinking provides the novel material with the strength to withstand the weight that would be put on something like a chair or a table. The natural affinity between fibers and proteins is why it’s so hard to get food stains out of clothing. This same attraction makes strong protein-fabric materials.

While Kumar’s team has only worked with cotton so far, they expect other fiber materials, like hemp fibers or jute, would behave similarly due to their inherent but common chemical properties with cotton.

“The protein naturally adheres to the surface of the protein,” Kumar says. “We used that understanding to say ‘Hey, if it binds so tightly to cotton, why don’t we make a material out of it.’ And it works, it works amazingly.”

With the support of TCS, Professor Kumar is currently seeking industry partners to bring these technologies to market. For more information contact Michael Invernale at michael.invernale@uconn.edu.

Transitioning away from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which offer water- and oil-repelling properties on the outer shells of firefighter turnout gear, could bring potential performance tradeoffs, according to a new study from North Carolina State University.

The study showed that turnout gear without PFAS outer shell coatings were not oil-repellent, posing a potential flammability hazard to firefighters if exposed to oil and flame, said Bryan Ormond, assistant professor of textile engineering, chemistry and science at NC State and corresponding author of a paper describing the research.

“All oil repellents can also repel water, but all water repellents don’t necessarily repel oil,” Ormond said. “Diesel fuel is really difficult to repel, as is hydraulic fluid; in our testing, PFAS-treated materials repel both. In our tests, turnout gear without PFAS repelled water but not oil or hydraulic fluid.

“Further, oils seem to spread out even more on the PFAS-free gear, potentially increasing the hazard.”

PFAS chemicals – known as forever chemicals because of their environmental persistence – are used in food packaging, cookware and cosmetics, among other uses, but have recently been implicated in higher risks of cancer, higher cholesterol levels and compromised immune systems in humans. In response, firefighters have sought alternative chemical compounds – like the hydrocarbon wax coating used in the study – on turnout gear to repel water and oils.

Besides testing the oil- and water-repelling properties of PFAS-treated and PFAS-free outer garments, the NC State researchers also compared how the outer shells aged in job-related exposures like weathering, high heat and repeated laundering, and whether the garments remained durable and withstood tears and rips.

The study showed that PFAS-treated and PFAS-free outer shells performed similarly after exposure to UV rays and various levels of heat and moisture, as well as passes through heating equipment – similar to a pizza oven – and through washing machines.

“Laundering the gear is actually very damaging to turnout gear because of the washing machine’s agitation and cleaning agents used,” Ormond said.

“We also performed chemical analyses to see what’s happening during the weathering process,” said Nur Mazumder, an NC State doctoral student in fiber and polymer science and lead author of the paper. “Are we losing the PFAS chemistries, the PFAS-free chemistries or both when we age the garments? It turns out that we lost significant amounts of both of these finishes after the aging tests.”

Both types of garments performed similarly when tested for strength against tearing the outer shell fabric. The researchers say the PFAS and PFAS-free coatings didn’t seem to affect this attribute.

Ormond said that future work will explore how much oil repellency is needed by firefighters out in the field.
“Even with PFAS treatment, you see a difference between a splash of fluid and soaked-in fluid,” Ormond said. “For all of its benefits, PFAS-treated gear, when soaked, is dangerous to firefighters. So we need to really ask ‘What do firefighters need?’ If you’re not experiencing this need for oil repellency, there’s no worry about switching to non-PFAS gear. But firefighters need to know the non-PFAS gear will absorb oil, regardless of what those oils are.”

Andrew Hall, another NC State doctoral student in fiber and polymer science and co-author on the paper, is also testing dermal absorption, or taking the aged outer shell materials and placing them on a skin surrogate for a day or two. Are outer shell chemicals absorbed in the skin surrogate after these admittedly extreme exposure durations?

“Firefighting as a job is classified as a carcinogen but it shouldn’t have to be,” Ormond said. “How do we make better gear for them? How do we come up with better finishes and strategies for them?

“These aren’t just fabrics,” Ormond said. “They are highly engineered pieces of material that aren’t easily replaced.”

The paper appears in the Journal of Industrial Textiles. Funding for the research came from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program.

With its high-quality technical narrow textiles, JUMBO-Textil stands for high-tech - whether woven, braided or knitted. As an elastic specialist and solution partner, the company develops and produces individual innovations for customers worldwide. The 70-strong team must be as diverse and flexible as the products it designs. Textination spoke to industrial engineer Carl Mrusek about the current challenges facing family businesses. Carl Mrusek, who has been Chief Sales Officer (CSO) at Textation Group GmbH & Co. KG, to which JUMBO-Textil belongs, for almost a year now, is in charge of strategic corporate development as well as other areas of responsibility.

 

"In a family business, tradition is the foundation, innovation is the way forward," they say. The image of family-run companies has changed significantly in recent years - old-fashioned values and outdated business concepts have given way to a strong corporate culture, a strong sense of regional responsibility and sustainable planning. How does JUMBO-Textil combine its corporate values and traditions with a contemporary management style?

Carl Mrusek: As a family business, there is a close bond between the employees and the company and vice versa; the continuity of human relationships is important and valuable. JUMBO-Textil also has a tradition of one thing in particular: contemporary corporate management, both technically and professionally, as well as in terms of management style and values. Especially in a family business, which is often managed by the same person for decades, it is crucial to question corporate values and management style and to promote change. A company that has been operating successfully internationally for almost 115 years must be adaptable. For us, reacting quickly to changes, even anticipating them and moving forward accordingly, is at the heart of smart business practices. The specialization in elastics in the 1920s is an example of the foresighted power of change, as is the strategically important turn to technical textiles in the 1970s. A recent example is the merger with vombaur under the umbrella of the Textation Group.

The most important thing in any company is its employees. We would not be able to attract and retain them with outdated traditions and working methods. For us, the focus is not on the company management, but on joint success, and in a complex world, this is usually the result of successful cooperation and not an announcement from the boss. Leadership clearly means setting and pursuing strategic goals, but today it also means team development. Finding the best people, bringing them together and motivating them to achieve the goal.

 

Team spirit and vision development: How do you achieve this at JUMBO-Textil?

Carl Mrusek: As a team! JUMBO-Textil has systematically expanded its management team. In addition to the Managing Director, our CEO Andreas Kielholz, the Chief Operational Officer Patrick Kielholz, the Chief Financial Officer Ralph Cammerath, the Chief Technology Officer Dr. Sven Schöfer and myself as Chief Sales Officer work here. This shows that we are convinced of the idea of cooperation: We also work together on corporate development and strategic issues. The same applies to the individual teams - in organizational specialist teams or in interdisciplinary project teams. The tasks for which we are responsible may be different, but each is equally important.

 

Is that why you start the introduction of contact persons on your website with the Junior Sales Manager? And the C-level representatives are at the end?

Carl Mrusek: Yes, all JUMBO-Textil heads are the head of the company for us. All JUMBO-Textil faces represent the company. This is also reflected in the order of the contact persons on the website. Visitors should be able to quickly find the person who can help them and not find out who runs the company. That's what the legal notice is for. (laughs)

 

What is JUMBO-Textil's mission statement and vision for the future, and what needs to change in order to achieve this vision?

Carl Mrusek: We are currently working on the strategic direction of the Textation Group, which JUMBO-Textil GmbH & Co. KG and vombaur GmbH & Co. KG are part of. In this context, we have developed the Group's corporate vision and mission and updated our mission statement. This serves as a foundation for strategy development and is only sustainable if employees are involved in this process through surveys and workshops. I don't want to give too much away yet, but this much is already clear: strong teams, the right people in the right place, taking responsibility at all levels, sustainability as the basis for innovation - these will be the four cornerstones. You can already see from this: To achieve our vision, we cannot flip a switch. We must always remain open to change, always new - from product development to personnel recruitment. But as I said, we have a tradition of doing this.

 

JUMBO-Textil is not an industry specialist, but combines expertise for demanding high-tech narrow textiles. Who is in charge of challenging customer projects - do you decide in a team or rather top-down, where is the responsibility for an order placed?

Carl Mrusek: As a team, we decide which projects to implement and how to prioritize them. The corporate strategy determines the "direction of travel". In addition to the sales side, the development side of new projects also plays a decisive role. I therefore coordinate intensively with Dr. Sven Schöfer (CTO) and his team, as the focus here is on the technical development and implementation of our products. In the end, project processing is always a team effort between Sales and Development in close cooperation with Production..

 

Between above-standard pay, a 4-day week and the much-vaunted work-life balance in the current situation on the job market, companies are more likely to be in the position of applicants than vice versa. What are you doing to remain attractive as an employer for new colleagues? And how do you keep the enthusiasm of your skilled employees at a consistently high level?

Carl Mrusek: An important approach for us is education. Training young people and proving to them during their apprenticeship: JUMBO-Textil is your place to be. We therefore already start recruiting skilled workers through our school visits and school internships. As a state-of-the-art company, we offer an attractive salary level and a pleasant and healthy working environment.

Applicants today also often want to organize their working hours and work arrangements individually and flexibly, for a variety of reasons. With modern working models and thanks to our ongoing progress in digitalization, we support them wherever possible. People also want to work for a company that they can identify with. Environmental and climate protection are just as important to our employees and applicants as social standards in our supply chain. The fact that we have set ourselves ambitious goals with our sustainability strategy and are consistently pursuing them with firmly scheduled steps - our climate-neutral energy generation is a concrete example that has already been implemented. Furthermore, we vigorously encourage our business partners to respect human and employee rights and are committed to the Code of Conduct of the German textile and fashion industry. All of this helps us to recruit staff.

 

What larger, more capital-intensive companies can partially make up for with financial resources, SMEs have to manage through agility and adaptability - especially in situations of crisis. To what extent are these requirements also reflected in your organizational structure and the requirements profile for employees?

Carl Mrusek: Exactly, that is the advantage that family businesses have over large corporations: We can make decisions quickly and react on a daily basis if necessary. Hierarchies are flat and coordination processes are short. An exciting suggestion doesn't have to be prepared by agencies and coordinated across several levels before it is approved by the management and can be implemented. The go-ahead can also come immediately over lunch: "Great idea, we'll do it." In a corporate group, this fails because only very few employees have the opportunity to have lunch with the management. - And we only talk about business in exceptional cases. Most of the time, the break is about family, the weather, sports and leisure plans - lunch topics, in other words. - We need responsible team players who are willing to make a change. People who work with others on an equal footing, who are committed to the company and its goals with drive and expertise and who are keen to try new things.

 

It now takes much more than a fruit basket and a gym to motivate current and potential employees. Working in a meaningful way and participating in a climate-friendly transformation is particularly important to many people. What does JUMBO-Textil do specifically to not just quote SDGs in a statement, but to live them in everyday company life?

Carl Mrusek: We have set ourselves a specific climate target: By 2035, our administrative and production operations at our headquarters will be climate-neutral. Realistic steps have been defined to achieve this. We have already achieved an important interim goal: at our headquarters in Sprockhövel, we only use green electricity from the sun, wind and water. We offset the unavoidable emissions for our heat generation with CO₂ compensation services. We are also developing more and more products from recyclable and recycled materials. Our vehicle fleet is currently being converted to purely electric or hybrid models.

 

Diversification and internationalization are part of every corporate strategy these days. But what do these terms mean for the management style of a medium-sized company in Sprockhövel? Do you consciously build interdisciplinary international teams?

Carl Mrusek: We live in a hyper-diverse society. This is also reflected in our company. Our teams consist of people with different international backgrounds, without us having to actively control this. The age structure is now also very mixed. We see the different perspectives as an asset, an opportunity and a success factor. We - and that ultimately means our customers and their projects - benefit from the variety of perspectives that flow into our solutions. As with many companies in the technical textiles sector, the proportion of women in some teams is still somewhat unbalanced. However, it is fortunately increasing steadily.

 

Generational change and succession planning are core issues for family-run companies. How important is it for JUMBO-Textil to professionalize its management team and to what extent is the company open to external specialists and managers?

Carl Mrusek: A company that closes its doors to external specialists and managers is also closing a door to success. That would be foolish. At JUMBO-Textil, we try to combine and balance the close ties, personal continuity and flexibility of a family-run company, the passion and innovative spirit of a start-up and the solidity and financial strength of a group. With Patrick Kielholz as COO, the next generation of the family is represented at management level, as is the external view and the diversity of perspectives provided by the other new members at C-level. The Textation Group, which also includes Patrick Kielholz's brother Kevin Kielholz, supports the company and enables it to think and act bigger than medium-sized family businesses often do. JUMBO-Textil is an elastic specialist. And what distinguishes our product also distinguishes us as an organization. We span the advantages of a family business as well as those of a start-up and a group. If I may use the image of elasticity here and not stretch it too far. (laughs)

• Designer Anouk Wipprecht Collaborates with Chromatic 3D Materials for a Shining, Motion-Activated Display

Chromatic 3D Materials, a 3D-printing technology company, and high-tech Dutch fashion designer Anouk Wipprecht have unveiled a new futuristic 3D-printed dress that responds to its environment through LEDs. The motion-activated design is among the first garments in the world to directly embed electronics within 3D-printed elastomers. It highlights what the future of creative expression and social interaction may look like as humankind further integrates with technology. Wipprecht’s design was presented at Formnext, the 3D-printing event in Germany.

Wipprecht’s avant-garde design highlights the potential of Chromatic’s 3D-printing technology and ChromaFlow 70™ material for commercial use. The designer used 3D printing to adhere nearly 75 flexible, 3D-printed LED domes to the fabric of the dress without adhesive or stitching. That capability could be used to create innovative running apparel, bags, footwear and other products including automotive and aerospace interiors, outdoor recreational equipment and personal protective equipment.  

The unique garment also demonstrates the flexibility of Chromatic’s materials. Unlike other 3D-printed materials, which tend to be brittle and hard, the dress features ChromaFlow 70™, a pliable, heat-resistant material that can drape and stretch more than four times its length without breaking. That flexibility makes it suitable for adding soft and seamless structural, functional and aesthetic elements that are useful for intimate and leisure apparel, sportswear, swimwear and other garments where comfort, silhouette and durability are crucial.

"Using Chromatic’s 3D materials to print offers numerous possibilities for the fashion industry. For designers like me, who incorporate electronics into our creations, it provides a unique opportunity of embedding and securing electronic parts within the printing process,“ says Anouk Wipprecht. “This is my most wearable — and washable — 3D-printed dress yet! As the electronics are enclosed, the material allows me to diffuse my LED lights, and the elastomer is both flexible and strong — making it excellent to bond to fabrics.”

“This collaboration is more than a partnership — it's a vision coming to life. By merging the genius of Anouk Wipprecht with our innovative 3D printing, we're setting the precedent for the future of fashion. We are embarking on a journey that amplifies the boundless integration of tech and art, opening doors for endless possibilities and applications in textiles and fashion,” said Cora Leibig, founder and CEO of Chromatic 3D Materials.

Tufts researchers harness protein from silk to make virus-sensing gloves, surgical screws that dissolve in your body, and other next-generation biomedical materials

About a mile northwest of Tufts’ Medford/Somerville campus, on the fourth floor of a refurbished woolen factory, there is a shrine to silk. Glass vases filled with silkworm cocoons and washed silk fibers sit artfully on a shelf across from a colorful drawing of the life cycle of Bombyx mori, the domesticated silk moth. Farther in, more cocoons in wall-mounted cases border a large, close-up image of silk fibers, and displays hold dozens of prototypes made from silk, including smart fabrics, biosensors, a helmet that changes color upon impact, and potential replacements for materials like leather, plastic, and particle board.

The only things missing are the silkworms themselves, but Fiorenzo Omenetto, the director of Silklab and the Frank C. Doble Professor of Engineering at Tufts, said they will be arriving soon. The lab is building a terrarium so that visitors can view the animals.
“We’re going to have a celebration of silkworms and moths,” Omenetto said.

Silk has been cultivated and harvested for thousands of years. It is best known for the strong, shimmering fabric that can be woven from its fibers, but it also has a long history of use in medicine to dress injuries and suture wounds. At Silklab, Omenetto and his colleagues are building on silk’s legacy, proving that this ancient fiber could help create the next generation of biomedical materials.

Silk moth caterpillars, known as silkworms, extrude a single sticky strand of silk from their mouths to form cocoons, which are harvested by silk farmers to make silk thread. At its core, silk is a mixture of two proteins: fibroin, which provides the fiber’s structure, and sericin, which binds it together. With a few steps in the lab, Tufts researchers can remove the sericin and dissolve the fibers, turning a dry cocoon into a fibroin-filled liquid.

“Nature builds structural proteins that are very tough and very strong,” Omenetto said. “Your bricks are these fibroin proteins floating in water. From there, you can build whatever you want.”
Starting with shipments of dried cocoons from silk farms, Omenetto and his colleagues have been able to create gels, sponges, clear plastic-like sheets, printable inks, solids that look like amber, dippable coatings, and much more.

“Each of the materials that you make can contain all these different functions, and there’s only 24 hours in a day,” Omenetto said with a laugh. “This is why I don’t sleep.”

Biocompatible and Biodegradable
When Omenetto arrived at Tufts almost two decades ago, his research was focused on lasers and optics—silk wasn’t in the picture. But a chance conversation with David Kaplan, the Stern Family Professor of Engineering and chair of the biomedical engineering department, set him on a new path.

Kaplan, who has been working with silk since the early ’90s, was designing a silk scaffold that would help rebuild a person’s cornea, allowing cells to grow between the layers. He needed a way to ensure that the growing cells would have enough oxygen and showed the small, transparent sheet to Omenetto, who was immediately intrigued by the material. Omenetto was able to use his lab’s lasers to put tiny holes in Kaplan’s silk cornea. More collaborations quickly followed.
“We’ve worked together incessantly since then,” Kaplan said.

One of those lines of research has been finding ways to use silk to help repair and regrow bone, blood vessels, nerves, and other tissue. Silk is biocompatible, meaning it doesn’t cause harm in the body and breaks down in predictable ways. With the right preparation, silk materials can provide necessary strength and structure while the body is healing.

“You can mold and shape silk to whatever you need, and it will hold that volume while the native tissue regrows into the space and the silk material degrades,” Kaplan said. “Eventually it’s 100 percent gone, and you’re back to your normal tissue.”

Some of this work has already been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A company called Sofregen, which spun out of Kaplan and Omenetto’s research, is using an injectable silk-based gel to repair damaged vocal cords, the tissues that regulate air flow and help us speak.

On their own, sturdy silk structures can keep their size, shape, and function for years before degrading. But in some instances, such as those involving surgical screws and plates intended for use in rapidly growing children, this pace would be too slow. The researchers had to find a way to speed up the time it takes for dense silk biomaterials to break down. They introduced an enzyme that our bodies produce naturally into the silk to hasten the breakdown process. The idea is that the enzyme would sit dry and inactive within the silk device until the structure is installed in a person, then the device would hydrate and activate the enzyme to digest the material more rapidly.

“We can titer in just the right amount of enzyme to make a screw go away in a week, a month, a year,” Kaplan said. “We have control over the process.”

Currently, Kaplan and his lab are working on other small, degradable medical devices that would help cut down on the number of surgeries that patients need. Ear tubes, for example, are often surgically implanted to help alleviate chronic ear infections and then need to be surgically removed. Kaplan and his colleagues have designed silk-based ear tubes that degrade on their own and can even carry antibiotics.

“As someone with a daughter who went through six surgeries on her ear, I know how helpful this could be,” Kaplan said.

Wind turbines typically operate for 20 to 30 years before they are undergoing dismantling and recycling. However, the recycling of fiber composites, especially from the thick-walled rotor blade parts, has been inadequate until now. The prevailing methods involve thermal or mechanical recycling. For a sustainable and holistic recycling process, a research consortium led by Fraunhofer IFAM is pooling their expertise to recover the fibers through pyrolysis. Subsequent surface treatment and quality testing of the recyclates allow for them to be used again in industry.

Today, the vast majority of wind turbines can already be recycled cleanly. In the case of rotor blades, however, recycling is only just beginning. Due to the 20-year operation period and the installation rates, the blade volume for recycling will be increasing in the coming years and decades. In 2000, for example, around 6,000 wind turbines were erected in Germany, which now need to be fed into a sustainable recycling process. In 2022, about 30,000 onshore and offshore wind turbines with a capacity of 65 gigawatts were in operation in Germany alone.

As wind energy is the most important cornerstone for a climate-neutral power supply, the German government has set itself the goal of further increasing its wind energy capacity by 2030 by installing larger and more modern turbines. Rotor blades will become longer, the proportion of carbon fibers used will continue to increase - and so will the amount of waste. In addition, the existing material mix in rotor blades is expected to increase in the future and precise knowledge of the structure of the components will become even more important for recycling. This underscores the urgency of developing sustainable processing methods, especially for recycling the thick-walled fiber composites in the rotor blades.

Economic and ecological recycling solution for fiber composites on the horizon
Rotor blades of wind turbines currently up for recycling consist of more than 85 percent of glass- and carbon-fiber-reinforced thermosets (GFRP/CFRP). A large proportion of these materials is found in the flange and root area and within the fiber-reinforced straps as thick-walled laminates with a wall thicknesses of up to 150 mm. Research into high-quality material fiber recycling as continuous fibers is of particular importance, not only because of the energy required for carbon fiber production. This is where the project "Pyrolysis of thick-walled fiber composites as a key innovation in the recycling process for wind turbine rotor blades" – "RE SORT" for short – funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection comes in. The aim of the project team is the complete recycling by means of pyrolysis.

A prerequisite for high-quality recycling of fiber composites is the separation of the fibers from the mostly thermoset matrix. Although pyrolysis is a suitable process for this purpose, it has not yet gained widespread adoption. Within the project, the project partners are therefore investigating and developing pyrolysis technologies that make the recycling of thick-walled fiber composite structures economically feasible and are technically different from the recycling processes commonly used for fiber composites today. Both quasi-continuous batch and microwave pyrolysis are being considered.

Batch pyrolysis, which is being developed within the project, is a pyrolysis process in which the thermoset matrix of thick fiber composite components is slowly decomposed into oily and especially gaseous hydrocarbon compounds by external heating. In microwave pyrolysis, energy is supplied by the absorption of microwave radiation, resulting in internal rapid heat generation. Quasi-continuous batch pyrolysis as well as microwave pyrolysis allow the separation of pyrolysis gases or oils. The planned continuous microwave pyrolysis also allows for the fibers to be preserved and reused in their full length.

How the circular economy succeeds - holistic utilization of the recycled products obtained
In the next step, the surfaces of the recovered recycled fibers are prepared by means of atmospheric plasmas and wet-chemical coatings to ensure their suitability for reuse in industrial applications. Finally, strength tests can be used to decide whether the recycled fibers will be used again in the wind energy industry or, for example, in the automotive or sporting goods sectors.

The pyrolysis oils and pyrolysis gases obtained in batch and microwave pyrolysis are evaluated with respect to their usability as raw materials for polymer synthesis (pyrolysis oils) or as energy sources for energy use in combined heat and power (CHP) plants (pyrolysis gases).

Both quasi-continuous batch pyrolysis and continuous-flow microwave pyrolysis promise economical operation and a significant reduction in the environmental footprint of wind energy. Therefore, the chances for a technical implementation and utilization of the project results are very good, so that this project can make a decisive contribution to the achievement of the sustainability and climate goals of the German Federal Government.

Business leaders, product developers, and technology scouts convened at the RISE® (Research, Innovation & Science for Engineered Fabrics) Conference, Sept. 26-27, Raleigh, NC for two days of valuable insights in material science, process and sustainability innovations. RISE is co-organized by INDA and The Nonwovens Institute, North Carolina State University.

Industry, academic, and government experts shared their expertise in these key areas:

• The future of nonwoven manufacturing
• Real-world applications and advances in filter media
• rPolymers and sustainability
• Innovative strategies and circular solutions
• Advancements in sustainable nonwoven applications
• Market statistics and data trends

A highlight of RISE was a poster presentation of fundamental nonwovens research by The Nonwovens Institute’s graduate students. As an added value, The Nonwovens Institute offered RISE participants a tour of its world-class facilities located on the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University, featuring the most extensive set of lab- and pilot-scale equipment found anywhere including all the nonwovens platform and testing technologies.

RISE® Innovation Award Winner
TiHive won the 2023 RISE Innovation Award for their SAPMonit technology. TiHive’s innovation, SAPMonit – a technology breakthrough, inspects millions of diapers weekly. SAPMonit delivers lightning-speed inline inspection of superabsorbents’ weight and distribution, optimizes resources, detects flaws, and accelerates R&D. SAPMonit utilizes advanced see-through cameras, high-speed vision algorithms, and secure cloud integration, revolutionizing industry norms. SAPMonit has great potential for sustainability, cost reduction, and enhanced customer satisfaction as it avoids hundreds of tons of plastic waste per year per machine.

The RISE Innovation Award finalists included Curt. G. Joa, Inc. for their ESC-8 – The JOA® Electronic Size Change, Fiberpartner Aps for their BicoBio Fiber, and Reifenhäuser REICOFIL GmbH & Co. KG for their Reifenhäuser Reicofil RF5 XHL.  Together, these finalists’ innovations have the potential to reduce plastic waste by millions of kgs.

DiaperRecycle won the 2022 RISE® Innovation Award for its innovative technology to recycle used diapers into absorbent and flushable cat litter. By diverting used diapers from households and institutions, and separating the plastic and fiber, DiaperRecycle strives to decrease the climate-changing emissions of diapers from landfills.

2023 INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award
Ed Thomas, President, Nonwoven Technology Associates, LLC, received the 2023 INDA Lifetime Technical Achievement Award for his decades of nonwoven contributions to the growth and success of the nonwoven industry.

RISE 2024 will be held October 1-2, 2024 at the James B. Hunt Jr. Library at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC.

Interview with vombaur - pioneers in special textiles
Technical narrow textiles, custom solutions, medium-sized textile producer and development partner for filtration textiles, composite textiles and industrial textiles: vombaur. Digitalisation, sustainability, energy prices, pioneering work and unbroken enthusiasm – Textination spoke to two passionate textile professionals: Carl Mrusek, Chief Sales Officer (CSO), and Johannes Kauschinger, Sales Manager for Composites and Industrial Textiles, at vombaur GmbH, which, as well as JUMBO-Textil, belongs to the Textation Group.
 
If you look back at your history and thus to the beginnings of the 19th century, you will see a ribbon manufactory and, from 1855, a production of silk and hat bands. Today you produce filtration textiles, industrial textiles and composites textiles. Although you still produce narrow textiles today, the motto "Transformation as an opportunity" seems to be a lived reality at vombaur.
 
Carl Mrusek, Chief Sales Officer: Yes, vombaur has changed a few times in its almost 220-year history.  Yet the company has always remained true to itself as a narrow textiles manufacturer. This testifies to the willingness of the people in the company to change and to their curiosity. Successful transformation is a joint development, there is an opportunity in change. vombaur has proven this many times over the past almost 220 years: We have adapted our product portfolio to new times, we have built new factory buildings and new machinery, we have introduced new materials and developed new technologies, we have entered into new partnerships – as most recently as part of the Textation Group. We are currently planning our new headquarters. We are not reinventing ourselves, but we will go through a kind of transformation process with the move into the brand new, climate-friendly high-tech space.

 

Could you describe the challenges of this transformation process?
 
Johannes Kauschinger, Sales Manager for Composites and Industrial Textiles: A transformation usually takes place technically, professionally, organisationally and not least – perhaps even first and foremost – culturally. The technical challenges are obvious. Secondly, in order to manage and use the new technologies, appropriate expertise is needed in the company. Thirdly, every transformation entails new processes, teams and procedures have to be adapted. And finally, fourthly, the corporate culture also changes. Technology can be procured, expertise acquired, the organisation adapted. Time, on the other hand, cannot be bought. I therefore consider the greatest challenge to be the supply of human resources: In order to actively shape the transformation and not be driven by development, we need sufficient skilled workers.

 

Visiting your website, the claim "pioneering tech tex" immediately catches the eye. Why do you see your company as a pioneer, and what are vombaur's groundbreaking or pioneering innovations?

Carl Mrusek: With our unique machine park, we are pioneers for seamless circular woven textiles. And as a development partner, we break new ground with every order. We are always implementing new project-specific changes: to the end products, to the product properties, to the machines. It happens regularly that we adapt a weaving machine for a special seamless woven shaped textile, sometimes even develop a completely new one.
 
With our young, first-class and growing team for Development and Innovation led by Dr. Sven Schöfer, we repeatedly live up to our promise of "pioneering tech tex" by developing special textile high-tech solutions with and for our customers. At the same time, we actively explore new potentials. Most recently with sustainable materials for lightweight construction and research into novel special filtration solutions, for example for the filtration of microplastics. A state-of-the-art textile technology laboratory is planned for this team in the new building.

 

The development of technical textiles in Germany is a success story. From a global perspective, we manage to succeed with mass-produced goods only in exceptional cases. How do you assess the importance of technical textiles made in Germany for the success of other, especially highly technological industries?

Carl Mrusek: We see the future of industry in Europe in individually developed high-tech products. vombaur stands for high-quality, reliable and durable products and made-to-order products. And it is precisely this – custom-fit products, instead of surplus and throwaway goods – that is the future for sustainable business in general.

 

What proportion of your production is generated by being project-based as opposed to a standard range, and to what extent do you still feel comfortable with the term "textile producer"?

Johannes Kauschinger: Our share of special solutions amounts to almost 90 percent. We develop technical textile solutions for our customers' current projects. For this purpose, we are in close contact with the colleagues from our customers' product development departments. Especially in the field of composite textiles, special solutions are in demand. This can be a component for space travel – after all, a spaceship is not manufactured off the peg. We also offer high-quality mass-produced articles, for example in the area of industrial textiles, where we offer round woven tubulars for conveyor belts. In this sense, we are a textile producer, but more than that: we are also a textile developer.

 

In August, Composites Germany presented the results of its 21st market survey. The current business situation is viewed very critically, the investment climate is becoming gloomier and future expectations are turning negative. vombaur also has high-strength textile composites made of carbon, aramid, glass and hybrids in its portfolio. Do you share the assessment of the economic situation as reflected in the survey?

Carl Mrusek: We foresee a very positive development for vombaur because we develop in a very solution-oriented way and offer our customers genuine added value. This is because future technologies in particular require individual, reliable and lightweight components. This ranges from developments for the air taxi to wind turbines. Textiles are a predestined material for the future. The challenge here is also to offer sustainable and recyclable solutions with natural raw materials such as flax and recycled and recyclable plastics and effective separation technologies.

 

There is almost no company nowadays that does not use the current buzzwords such as climate neutrality, circular economy, energy efficiency and renewable energies. What is your company doing in these areas and how do you define the importance of these approaches for commercial success?

Carl Mrusek: vombaur pursues a comprehensive sustainability strategy. Based on the development of our mission statement, we are currently working on a sustainability declaration. Our responsibility for nature will be realised in a very concrete and measurable way through our new building with a green roof and solar system. In our product development, the high sustainability standards – our own and those of our customers – are already flowing into environmentally friendly and resource-saving products and into product developments for sustainable projects such as wind farms or filtration plants.

 

Keyword digitalisation: medium-sized businesses, to which vombaur belongs with its 85 employees, are often scolded for being too reluctant in this area. How would you respond to this accusation?

Johannes Kauschinger:

We often hear about the stack crisis at the present time. Based on this, we could speak of the stack transformation. We, the small and medium-sized enterprises, are transforming ourselves in a number of different dimensions at the same time: Digital transformation, climate neutrality, skilled labour market and population development, independence from the prevailing supply chains. We are capable of change and willing to change. Politics and administration could make it a bit easier for us in some aspects. Key words: transport infrastructure, approval times, energy prices. We do everything we can on our side of the field to ensure that small and medium-sized enterprises remain the driving economic force that they are.

 

 

How do you feel about the term shortage of skilled workers? Do you also take unconventional paths to find and retain talent and skilled workers in such a specialised industry? Or does the problem not arise?

Carl Mrusek: Of course, we are also experiencing a shortage of skilled workers, especially in the industrial sector. But the development was foreseeable. The topic played a major role in the decision to move together with our sister company JUMBO-Textil under the umbrella of the Textation Group. Recruiting and promoting young talent can be better mastered together – for example with cross-group campaigns and cooperations.

 

If you had to describe a central personal experience that has shaped your attitude towards the textile industry and its future, what would it be?

Johannes Kauschinger: A very good friend of my family pointed out to me that we live in an area with a very active textile industry, which at the same time has problems finding young talents. I visited two companies for an interview and already on the tour of each company, the interaction of people, machines and textiles up to the wearable end product was truly impressive. In addition, I was able to learn a profession with a very strong connection to everyday life. To this day, I am fascinated by the wide range of possible uses for textiles, especially in technical applications, and I have no regrets whatsoever about the decision I made back then.

Carl Mrusek: I came into contact with the world of textiles and fashion at a young age. I still remember the first time I went through the fully integrated textile production of a company in Nordhorn with my father Rolf Mrusek. Since then, the subject has never left me. Even before I started my studies, I had made a conscious decision to pursue a career in this industry and to this day I have never regretted it, on the contrary. The diversity of the special solutions developed in the Textation Group fascinates me again and again.

 

vombaur is a specialist for seamless round and shaped woven narrow textiles and is known throughout the industry as a development partner for filtration textiles, composite textiles and industrial textiles made of high-performance fibres. Technical narrow textiles from vombaur are used for filtration – in the food and chemical industries, among others. As high-performance composite materials, they are used, for example, in aircraft construction or medical technology. For technical applications, vombaur develops specially coated industrial textiles for insulation, reinforcement or transport in a wide range of industrial processes – from precision mechanics to the construction industry. The Wuppertal-based company was founded in 1805. The company currently employs 85 people.

Sectors

• Aviation & Automotive
• Sports & Outdoor   
• Construction & Water Management
• Safety & Protection   
• Chemistry & Food
• Plant construction & electronics   
• Medicine & Orthopaedics

 

The search for better, planet-friendly footwear material reveals a solution in one unlikely ingredient: pineapple leaves. This unique textile ingredient is the recent focus of the latest footwear design collaboration between Ananas Anam, TENCEL™ and Calvin Klein, launching Calvin Klein’s first-ever trainer featuring a knitted upper made of PIÑAYARN® blended with TENCEL™ Lyocell fibers.

Known as “The Sustainable Knit Trainer”, the trainers are a timeless closet staple, available in classic colors such as black and off-white and etched with the signature Calvin Klein logo. The PIÑAYARN® knit upper, made of 70% TENCEL™ Lyocell and 30% Anam PALF™ pineapple leaf fiber, is both from botanic origin and bio-based.

As the fashion sector has begun to realize the negative environmental effects of synthetic materials, a lot of brands have turned towards plant-based materials such as PIÑAYARN®. Using a low-impact manufacturing process, PIÑAYARN® is derived from pineapple leaf waste and involves a water-free spinning process. The addition of TENCEL™ Lyocell, a fiber made from wood pulp obtained from responsibly managed forests and produced using a solvent spinning process that recycles both the solvent and water at a recovery rate of more than 99%, offers full traceability of the TENCEL™ fiber in the final blended yarn.

Melissa Braithwaite, PIÑAYARN® Product Development Manager at Ananas Anam said “The inspiration for PIÑAYARN® came from the need to provide the textile industry with an alternative to overused, often polluting, conventional fibers, such as cotton or polyester. We have an abundance of available raw material within our business, and broadening our product offering means we can valorize more waste, increasing our positive impact on the environment and society.”

Indeed, as the consumer demand for more eco-responsible textile products and footwear grows, so too has the popularity of wood-based fibers as a material alternative. Ananas Anam and TENCEL™’s collaboration with Calvin Klein has been a success in that the physical characteristics and planet-conscious benefits of both PIÑAYARN® and TENCEL™ fibers complement each other perfectly, creating a blended material that is soft and usable for various woven and knitted applications.

For material developers like Ananas Anam seeking the ideal fiber blend partner to create PIÑAYARN®, TENCEL™ Lyocellfibers are celebrated for their versatility and ability to be blended with a wide range of textiles such as hemp, linen and of course Anam PALF™ pineapple leaf fiber, to enhance the aesthetics, performance and functionality of fabrics. Additionally, beyond being used in shoe uppers, TENCEL™ Lyocell fibers can be used in every part of the shoe including the upper fabric, lining, insoles, padding, laces, zipper and sewing thread. TENCEL™ Lyocell can also be used in powder form for use in the outsoles of shoes.

“We are extremely excited about this collaboration with Ananas Anam for the launch of The Sustainable Knit Trainer by Calvin Klein, an eco-responsible and planet-friendly shoe for conscious consumers. This partnership is the perfect example of our commitment to provide education and expertise to support anyone who chooses to improve the environmental and social credentials of their products by using more responsible materials,” said Nicole Schram, Global Business Development Manager at Lenzing.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have developed an electronic yarn capable of precisely measuring how a person’s body moves. Integrated directly into sportswear or work clothing, the textile sensor predicts the wearer’s exhaustion level during physical exertion.

Exhaustion makes us more prone to injury when we’re exercising or performing physical tasks. A group of ETH Zurich researchers led by Professor Carlo Menon, Head of the Biomedical and Mobile Health Technology Lab, have now developed a textile sensor that produces real-time measurements of how exhausted a person gets during physical exertion. To test their new sensor, they integrated it into a pair of athletic leggings. Simply by glancing at their smartphone, testers were able to see when they were reaching their limit and if they ought to take a break.

This invention, for which ETH Zurich has filed a patent, could pave the way for a new generation of smart clothing: many of the products currently on the market have electronic components such as sensors, batteries or chips retrofitted to them. In addition to pushing up prices, this makes these articles difficult to manufacture and maintain.

By way of contrast, the ETH researchers’ stretchable sensor can be integrated directly into the material fibres of stretchy, close-fitting sportswear or work clothing. This makes large-scale production both easier and cheaper. Menon highlights another benefit: “Since the sensor is located so close to the body, we can capture body movements very precisely without the wearer even noticing.”

An extraordinary yarn
When people get tired, they move differently – and running is no exception: strides shorten and become less regular. Using their new sensor, which is made of a special type of yarn, the ETH researchers can measure this effect. It’s all thanks to the yarn’s structure: the inner fibre is made of a conductive, elastic rubber. The researchers wrapped a rigid wire, which is clad in a thin layer of plastic, into a spiral around this inner fibre. “These two fibres act as electrodes and create an electric field. Together, they form a capacitor that can hold an electric charge,” says Tyler Cuthbert, a postdoc in Menon’s group, who was instrumental in the research and development that led to the invention.

Smart running leggings
Stitching this yarn into the thigh section of a pair of stretchy running leggings means that it will stretch and slacken at a certain rhythm as the wearer runs. Each movement alters the gap between the two fibres, and thus also the electric field and the capacitor’s charge.

Under normal circumstances, these charge fluctuations would be much too small to help measure the body’s movements. However, the properties of this yarn are anything but normal: “Unlike most other materials, ours actually becomes thicker when stretched,” Cuthbert says. As a result, the yarn is considerably more sensitive to minimal movements. Stretching it even a little produces distinctly measurable fluctuations in the sensor’s charge. This makes it possible to measure and analyse even subtle changes in running form.

But how can this be used to determine a person’s exhaustion level? In previous research, Cuthbert and Menon observed a series of testers, who ran while wearing athletic leggings equipped with a similar sensor. They recorded how the electric signals changed as the runners got more and more tired. Their next step was to turn this pattern into a model capable of predicting runners’ exhaustion which can now be used for their novel textile sensor.  But ensuring that the model can make accurate predictions outside the lab will require a lot of additional tests and masses of gait pattern data.

Textile antenna for wireless data transfer  
To enable the textile sensor to send electrical signals wirelessly to a smartphone, the researchers equipped it with a loop antenna made of conducting yarn, which was also sewn directly onto the leggings. “Together, the sensor and antenna form an electrical circuit that is fully integrated into the item of clothing,” says Valeria Galli, a doctoral student in Menon’s group.

The electrical signal travels from the stretchable sensor to the antenna, which transmits it at a certain frequency capable of being read by a smartphone. The wearer runs and the sensor moves, creating a signal pattern with a continuously fluctuating frequency, which a smartphone app then records and evaluates in real time. But the researchers still have quite a bit of development work to do to make this happen.

Applications include sport and workplace
At the moment, the researchers are working on turning their prototype into a market-ready product. To this end, they are applying for one of ETH Zurich’s sought-after Pioneer Fellowships. “Our goal is to make the manufacture of smart clothing cost-effective and thus make it available to a broader public,” Menon says. He sees the potential applications stretching beyond sport to the workplace – to prevent exhaustion-related injuries – as well as to rehabilitation medicine.